What’s even funnier, is having seen it from a closer angle, if in some crazy world that was allowed, they’d have still strawberry floated it up because straight away, when Lingard passes it back to Rashford he’s offside

Meep wrote:I hope Croatia win but I kind of knew at half-time in Croatia v England that neither was good enough to beat France. The cup is pretty much theirs already at this point.

It's not though. They are strong favourites but it's a one-off game and you have got to think you have some kind of chance. There are loads of variables that could possibly tilt your way and give you a slight edge - an early red card or penalty, a freak injury, the other team choking, your having the game of your lives, a flukey deflection, a flukey miss etc.

Obviously Croatia winning is going to upset the odds but they don't exactly need a miracle. It's not Man City versus Bromley Juniors. Croatia are a decent side, France are better. I think France would have probably preferred to play England to be honest. Though they probably would rather lose to Croatia if they had to, maybe.

I'm quite pessimistic in general and was uneasy with us playing Colombia or being ripped as overwhelming favourites against Sweden. But even had England got to the final, I would be clinging to that hope that in a one-off game, anything could happen. And in football, the odds are upset probably more often than in other sports. We wouldn't have been favourites, I wouldn't have expected us to win nor would I have been surprised at a defeat, but you go in to the game thinking that if things go your way you could win it.

Some England players ran more in those 15 seconds than they did during the entire second half.

I don't understand how this happens. Don't you have to wait for the ref to blow his whistle to kick off? Why would you just decide to just kick off yourself when you've spent an entire life time of kicking off on a refs whistle.

Lotus wrote:The bitter Scots, Welsh and Irish online do make me laugh though. No big or important games of their own to get excited about, so it's all about shitting on another team, in this case for getting knocked out in the SFs of the World Cup.

That’s a bit harsh, the Welsh did make a semi-final a couple of years ago and I haven’t seen anything from the Irish (other than Photek but he doesn’t count).

The Scottish though

My aunt lives up here(she’s English) and at the end of the game(and probably a few lagers) pre-emptively went on the absolute social media offensive to all her Scottish mates. I went to bed fairly early last night and have no idea what happened but it must’ve gone south from there.

End result was that I woke up at 6.30 this morning to a post from her confirming that she in no way condones spousal abuse.

Some England players ran more in those 15 seconds than they did during the entire second half.

I don't understand how this happens. Don't you have to wait for the ref to blow his whistle to kick off? Why would you just decide to just kick off yourself when you've spent an entire life time of kicking off on a refs whistle.

There seems to be a strange rumour going around this tournament that if all the opposition players are off the pitch then you're allowed to kick-off. I'm not sure where it came from but I've seen it posted a few places, and some teams seem to believe it as well, for example Portugal ensured one player stayed on the pitch while the rest were off celebrating a goal.

Some England players ran more in those 15 seconds than they did during the entire second half.

I don't understand how this happens. Don't you have to wait for the ref to blow his whistle to kick off? Why would you just decide to just kick off yourself when you've spent an entire life time of kicking off on a refs whistle.

There seems to be a strange rumour going around this tournament that if all the opposition players are off the pitch then you're allowed to kick-off. I'm not sure where it came from but I've seen it posted a few places, and some teams seem to believe it as well, for example Portugal ensured one player stayed on the pitch while the rest were off celebrating a goal.

Yeah I have no idea how these ideas come about and seem to get so widespread, it's even more unfathomable that actual professional players of the game believe it.

The rules for a kick off are pretty straight forward and one of the key elements is that all players (except the playing kicking off) must be in their own half. It's not hard boys!

I think what Home said about it being like that first summer of Pokémon Go is about right.

When it comes to football, we are often a fractious nation. Our tribes are often confined to individual cities and, even then, with the prevalence of the big clubs, you often get smatterings of them everywhere.

What happens when England do well, is that everyone pulls together and creates quite a communal atmosphere that can't exist in the domestic leagues. That's why the memes were so numerous, as people were just having funny making them - often as intentional torturous as possible - and sharing them with like-minded fans. The media whip everyone up and we all get carried along with it, even the most pessimistic fans like me, let 10% of ourselves dream about what possibly could happen but probably won't.

This is before you consider things outside of football too - like the fact that due to Brexit, the country is constantly divided politically and at a bit of an impasse over its future direction.

It takes a particular sour mindset to resent, criticise or belittle the optimism, celebration and party atmosphere, simply because it's England. For the most part, it's not about it being England but about being human.

Jenuall wrote:The rules for a kick off are pretty straight forward and one of the key elements is that all players (except the playing kicking off) must be in their own half. It's not hard boys!

Is it that they must be in their own half, or that they must not be in the opponents half? Because if it's the latter then if the celebrating players are all off the pitch then they aren't in the opponent's half.

Jenuall wrote:The rules for a kick off are pretty straight forward and one of the key elements is that all players (except the playing kicking off) must be in their own half. It's not hard boys!

Is it that they must be in their own half, or that they must not be in the opponents half? Because if it's the latter then if the celebrating players are all off the pitch then they aren't in the opponent's half.

Parksey wrote:I think what Home said about it being like that first summer of Pokémon Go is about right.

When it comes to football, we are often a fractious nation. Our tribes are often confined to individual cities and, even then, with the prevalence of the big clubs, you often get smatterings of them everywhere.

What happens when England do well, is that everyone pulls together and creates quite a communal atmosphere that can't exist in the domestic leagues. That's why the memes were so numerous, as people were just having funny making them - often as intentional torturous as possible - and sharing them with like-minded fans. The media whip everyone up and we all get carried along with it, even the most pessimistic fans like me, let 10% of ourselves dream about what possibly could happen but probably won't.

This is before you consider things outside of football too - like the fact that due to Brexit, the country is constantly divided politically and at a bit of an impasse over its future direction.

It takes a particular sour mindset to resent, criticise or belittle the optimism, celebration and party atmosphere, simply because it's England. For the most part, it's not about it being England but about being human.

What i hate about it is that as you say everyone pulls together and they appreciate rival clubs players, then all of sudden we get knocked out and the hate and vile comes back. I've read so many derogatory comments today about spurs players being responsible for England's exit today it's unreal.

People still shit-talking Lovren after he kept England down to one shot on target in 120 minutes. A man who was never beaten by Sterling's fantastic dribbling last night. A man who won more defensive headers than England's back three put together last night. The man who has so many big name players in his pocket over the past few months he's going to need a bigger pair of shorts.

PsychicSykes wrote:People still shit-talking Lovren after he kept England down to one shot on target in 120 minutes. A man who was never beaten by Sterling's fantastic dribbling last night. A man who won more defensive headers than England's back three put together last night. The man who has so many big name players in his pocket over the past few months he's going to need a bigger pair of shorts.

Show some respect to a colossus of the game. #GiveLovAChance

He clearly repaired his pockets with industrial strength material after the last time Kane burst out of his pocket But yeah it was strange how he was repeatedly identified as this weak link in the Croatian team.